Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

Jill Stavert, Edinburgh Napier University (j.stavert@napier.ac.uk)The European Court of Human Rights (the Court) has emphasised the enhanced vulnerability ofdetained persons with mental disorder. However, it has also ruled that non-consensual treatmentof such patients will not constitute inhuman or degrading treatment (prohibited under Article 3 ofthe European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)) where such treatment is permitted by lawand therapeutic necessity is convincingly shown. That being said, although the Court has furtherindicated that excessive or unwarranted mediation may amount to inhuman or degradingtreatment or a breach of the right to respect for private life, it remains unclear as to exactly whattypes of non-consensual treatment will result in ECHR violations. The UN Convention on theRights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 (UNCRPD) reinforces and defines more specifically therights of, and responsibilities relating to, persons with mental disorders and has increasingly beenreferred to in cases before the Court. By considering literature and cases that mention theUNCRPD this paper will therefore discuss whether it has the potential to provide greater clarityand protection for patients and staff in involuntary treatment situations.The CRPD and the ECHR: Uneasy Bedfellows?Peter Bartlett, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust & University of Nottingham, Nottingham,UK (peter.bartlett@nottingham.ac.uk)The CRPD is frequently said to introduce a ‘new paradigm’ into international law. Howeverdesirable this new paradigm may be, it begs the question of how institutions designed under theold paradigm are to adapt. An obvious example is the European Court of Human Rights, whichfor example specifically allows for the detention of ‘persons of unsound mind’ (art 5(1)(e)), indirect conflict with the prohibition of disability being used as a factor in detention in the CRPD(art 14).This paper will consider how far the ECHR can reasonably be expected to go in integrating thenew paradigm of the CRPD into its jurisprudence.Global Mental Health: The Implementation of the CRPD and Mental Health inthe New Era of Global Health GovernanceLance Gable, Wayne State University Law School & the Centers for Law and the Public’sHealth: A Collaborative at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities(lancegable@wayne.edu)With the establishment of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(CRPD), persons with mental disabilities have gained an important new tool to protect and fulfill412